The influence of urbanization on vegetation carbon pools under a tele-coupling framework in China

Carbon emissions will exacerbate the process of global warming, and urbanization can cause carbon loss from terrestrial ecosystems by occupying vegetated lands. Economic and social development are the dominant drivers of urban land expansion in China, and through regional economic links, urbanization can be influenced by external regions. Meanwhile, the external influence on both interior region urbanization and associated carbon pool variation has not yet been analyzed. Based on domestic trade data, land-use images, vegetation carbon densities, and NPP data, and by using the MRIO model and spatial analysis, this study considered the combined influence from external regions and examines urbanization and its influence on vegetation carbon pool (vegetation carbon storage and NPP) from the perspective of tele-coupling. The results show that during 2010–2015, 31,769 km² of other types of land was transformed into urban land in China, with 54.54%, 12.57%, and 13.13% from cropland, woodland, and grassland, respectively. Urbanization is more densely concentrated in the North China Plain and the Yangtze River Basin. Urbanization caused 6789.72 × 10⁴ t carbon loss, of which 2650.82 × 10⁴ t was from vegetation carbon storage loss and 4138.9 × 10⁴ t from net primary productivity (NPP) reduction. The overall carbon loss spatial distribution indicated a decrease from southeast to northwest. Hebei, Inner Mongolia, and Jiangsu were the top three provinces to be pulled by external provinces for urban land expansion. Conversely, Jiangsu, Henan, Zhejiang, Shandong, and Guangdong were the main pullers for urban expansion in other provinces. Hebei, Hunan, Guizhou, Hainan, Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Jiangxi, and Hubei presented a high amount of carbon loss pulled by external provinces. Shandong, Shanghai, Shanxi, Guangdong, Henan, Liaoning, Beijing, Heilongjiang, and Zhejiang showed a clear high carbon loss pulled to external provinces. Inequity shows that urbanization in less developed regions was usually more pulled by developed regions and the carbon loss was higher in regions with high biomass coverage.